Easter Eggs
Many of the Easter Eggs encountered in the original game are being replicated in this HD Trespasser remake, but an additional 9 have been added; one in each level. Some are more obvious, others are harder to spot. This page is a record of all the new Easter eggs, each of which represents a reference to something dinosaur-related that had a huge impact on my childhood. All the recreated Easter eggs from the 1998 retail version are also listed below.
In order to enjoy all of the below Easter eggs, you must have game build 22m2vB or newer.
The Beach - Treehouse from The Lost World 1998 Series (New Easter Egg)
The first Easter Egg is probably also the most fitting, as it is a direct reference to a series that was called "The Lost World" and therefore had the same title as had the movie that Trespasser was the sequel to.
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It can be found up in a tree just before the area where the 2 brachiosaurus roam in the beach level. "The Lost World" ran from 1999 to 2001 and was based on Arthur Conan Doyle's book with the same title, released in 1912. The book since has enjoyed many film adaptations, most notably in 1925, 1960, 1992 and in 2001. It enacts the story of a group of scientists, researchers and donors, making their way to a remote plateau where dinosaurs still live. The group encounters several adventures fighting dinosaurs, natives, lizard people, monkey people, and even aliens.
Given the fact that the series started 6 years after Jurassic Park was made (and 2 years after JP2), its animation was sub-par. It was however, something I enjoyed watching every weekend during my mid-teens nonetheless.
Jungle Road - Crystal Palace Park Iguanodon (New Easter Egg)
The first time I heard of the Dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park in London, UK, was in a magazine from Orbis publishing when I was about eight years old. It was then that I learned that these were the oldest surviving dinosaur models in the world. And even though they do not hold up based on what we know about Iguanodons today, they still represent a magical part of the history about the animals that I grew to love so much.
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It was not until nearly 20 years later that I would actually see these statues in person, only a couple of weeks after I had moved to the UK. It wasn't the best time of my life and living in London was a very challenging experience, but whenever I needed a cheering-up, I just took a bus ride to the nearby Crystal Palace Park and ogled my eyes out on these models, barely believing that something I had only seen in magazines for so many years, finally was right in front of me.
The Canyon - Lego Set 8485 (New Easter Egg)
This Easter egg is a bit harder to spot as it's a bit more discreet. The crashed airplane's registration number is "LGO-8485", short for LEGO 8485. This was one of the two most influential Lego sets I had as a child, and the dynamic T. Rex is still my all-time favourite Lego build that ever existed. Not only because it is a dinosaur, but also because of its mechanic: It used flexible plastic wires to move the dinosaur's body, for example wiggling its tail and head left and right by pushing and pulling on these plastic rods.
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Given the fact that this set also included a helicopter, I might actually end up painting the registration number onto the helicopter that crashed in the canyon. The airplane will also be replaced by a more detailed model later that can be entered, just like it was possible in the original game.
The Canyon - Monolith (Existing Easter Egg)
The monolith is an Easter egg that already existed in the original game. It is a tribute to Stanley Kubrick’s movie "2001: A Space Odyssey", which in turn is based upon Arthur C. Clarke’s novel of the same name.
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In the original game, however, it was not actually possible to approach the monolith, unless you knew how to teleport. In the remake, the monolith is accessible and will play the same music that was played when you teleported to the Easter egg in the original game.
The Town - Orbis Part Works Glow in the Dark T. Rex Skeleton (New Easter Egg)
This is by far my favourite and most meaningful Easter egg: This glow in the dark T. Rex skeleton was a puzzle made from pieces that had to be collected by buying several issues of the in 1993 released Dinosaur! magazine published by Orbis (in some countries De Agostini). In later issues, a green plastic skin could be collected that would fit around the skeleton. After that, the remaining issues came with cards of individual dinosaurs that could be traded with other collectors and used to play games. The entire collection spans some 104 issues and special-made binders for safe and secure storing.
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This was the most influential item of my entire childhood, and still today I own all of the magazines and binders. The glow in the dark T. Rex also still stands in my bedroom and watches over me at night. As a matter of fact, the 3D model used in the game is based directly on my own T. Rex. Using a very standard printer, I scanned all its pieces at home and then converted them into 3D objects using SketchUp, before virtually assembling them into the full model.
The Swamp - 1975 Book by L. B. Halstead (New Easter Egg)
As important as Dinosaurs! by Orbis Publishing was, there was one piece of work that came before and that started it all: 1975's book "The evolution and ecology of the Dinosaurs" by L.B. Halstead. An absolutely beautifully illustrated book, completely wrong by what we know of the dinosaurs today, but a gorgeous work of art nonetheless. This book reminds me so much of my childhood and of my early love to dinosaurs.
The Lab - Dinosaur! With Walter Cronkite (New Easter Egg)
Note: If you use build version 22m3vC or newer, this Easter Egg is not visible as a wall poster anymore but rather as a video that will be played on Nedry's PC when you unlock it. The password for his computer is well known.
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Dinosaur! with Walter Cronkite is a 4-part documentary. Filmed in 1991, it uses very graphic and vibrant stop-motion dinosaur animations. Although no longer accurate by today's research, it has remained my favourite documentary of all time. It makes an absolutely fantastic job in not only telling the story of the dinosaurs, like most documentaries do nowadays, but it equally focussed on the stories about their discoveries, the research, as well as human history.
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This documentary, as well as the aforementioned Dinosaurs! magazine part works by Orbis, and L.B. Halstead's book, actually are the only three items from my childhood that I still possess today. Everything else I owned up until a few years ago has been lost to time and only these three things have survived.
Mayan Ruins - A Land Before Time (New Easter Egg)
"The Land Before Time" was released in 1988 and it is probably the most influential movie just after Jurassic Park. Actually, until JP came out (and until I was old enough for my mother to allow me to watch it), "The Land Before Time" was the best alternative to watch dinosaurs in a motion picture. As we are nearing the end of the game at this point, I thought this would be the perfect spot to include the "rock that looks like a long neck dinosaur", which also appears towards the end of the movie.
Ascent - Tricky from Diddy Kong Racing (New Easter Egg)
The Nintendo 64 has been the most influential gaming platform in my life, even before the PS1 and the computer on which I played Trespasser. Games like Zelda OOT and Majora's Mask still hold a tight grip on me today, resulting in multiple playthroughs every year. My third most loved Nintendo 64 game is Diddy Kong Racing. Although I love Mario Kart 64 as well, DKR always stroke me as the better and much more engaging game. It has more personality and I love how warm and vibrant the colours are.
That's why I decided to sneak Tricky the triceratops into my remake. In addition to pay homage using the same colour skin and eyes, I also placed her in the one level where the player has to climb a mountain on a road that meanders around it to the summit - almost identical to the race against Tricky, where the track revolves around a mountain all the way to the top.
The Summit - Walking With Dinosaurs (New Easter Egg)
Probably one of lazier ones, but given how some of the Easter eggs so far were quite on the nose and, at times, required a lot of modelling and texturing, I decided to use a the discreet approach again. Hence, I simply painted a reference of my favourite episode of "Walking with Dinosaurs" onto the foundation of a wind turbine.
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I've been a dinosaur fan for my whole life so far and in the last 5 or so years, I started to develop more of an interest into an epoch that is often overlooked and yet possibly the most important for dinosaurs: the Perm and early Triassic. Without these two eras, the 150 million years reign of the dinosaurs would never have come to happen. The animals of the Permian were not just absolutely bizarre and fantastic, but it was during this time that the Archosauromorpha first appeared. These gave rise to Archisauroformes like Euparkeria and eventually branched off into creating early dinosaurs such as Eoraptor, Coelophysis and Plateosaurus. Often times we get absorbed by stories about the Jurassic, when vegetation was lush and dinosaurs exploded into all different shapes and sizes, or about the Triassic with it's massive T.Rex and Triceratops, as well as their tragic extinction. But often we forget to highlight how they came about, the harsh environment in which they survived for tens of millions of years, and why they were ultimately the best animal species adapted to thrive and become such a global powerhouse.
The Summit - Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley (Existing Easter Egg)
In the original release of the 1998 game, a hidden path leads to a voice-over of Lord Richard Attenborough as John Hammond, reciting Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias. The player is then automatically teleported to the top of the mountain and does not need to progress through the level in the traditional way. All of this is also built into the remake. In order to activate the hidden Easter egg, simply hop down from the elevator platform. The hidden path will automatically appear once you land on it.
